Bias shows

Rating: Null/10 (29 April 2004)

I saw this movie many years ago and only recently rented it on DVD. For my money this movie is very disappointing, full of cliches, rehashed scenes, cardboard characters, and above all totally biased towards the American military. As soon as I saw that "Green Acres" oddball Eddie Albert strutting around like an ageing thespian and John Wayne with his typical gung-ho attitude, I realised my memories of the original film were distinctly vague. This is an awful film, and I have to say the best performances came from the actors portraying the Germans. Maybe it appeals to 10-year-olds, but to those of us who took part in the war, and have longer memories, it's an extremely poor attempt at covering what was a momentous time in history. The British forces too were presented as cartoon characters as is often Hollywood's manner. Compare it to Saving Private Ryan? Well at least in TLD there were British forces present at Normandy. For Americans note the war started in 1939, not 1942 when the "yanks" decided to save the world.